TAXONOMIC STUDIES ON JUNGLE PALM SQUIRREL FUNAMBULUS TRISTRIATUS (WATERHOUSE) FROM NORTHERN WESTERN GHATS

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1 ISS Rec. zool. Surv. India: 3(Part-l): 61-66, 013 TAXOOMIC STUDIES O JUGLE PALM SQUIRREL FUAMBULUS TRISTRIATUS (WATERHOUSE) FROM ORTHER WESTER GHATS s. S. T ALMALE Zoological Survey of India, Central Zone Regional Centre, , Vijay agar, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) s_talmale@yahoo.co.in ITRODUCTIO: In India, genus Funambulus is represented by five species. Jungle Palm squirrel, Funambulus tristriatus (Waterhouse, 1837) is a largest species of the genus classified under the family Scuridae of the order Rodentia. It shows distinct three light longitudinal stripes on the dorsal surface (Photo- 1A). Underparts light or whitish. Face, forehead, back and haunches tinged with rusty red. Tail most often shorter than the Head and Body. The ingunal region, testis and mid-ventral line of the tail cadmium orange to Saturn red in colour (Photo-1B). Occipitonasal length of the skull exceeds 40 mm. Palate usually more than half of the occipitonasallength. Funambulus tristriatus (Waterhouse), an endemic species to Western Ghats of India, is... nll'.... DI....'., ",' I I. MAHAR HTRA. TAW or Photo-I: Funambulus tristriatus tristriatus (Waterhouse) Female (ZSLWRS. Mj 146) (Scale bar = 50 mm). A. Longitudinal three pale buff to brownish stripes (Marked by arrow) between the intermediate dark brown to black bands on the dorsal surface. B. Underparts whitish. Inguinal region & mid-ventral line of the tail cadmium orange to Saturn red in colour (Marked by arrow, Inset) Map 1: Distribution of Funambulus tristriatus tristriatus (Waterhouse) in Maharashtra State. Records from Maharashtra State includes Kolhapur Dist. : Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary [1]; Mumbai Dist. : Ghatkopar []; Mumbai Suburban Dist. : SGP, Borivali [3]; andurbar Dist. : Amlibari, Tal. Akkalkua [4], Kondanbari, near Visarwadi [5] (Extended Distribution); ashik Dist. : ashik [6]; Pune Dist. : Khandala [7], Karla [8], Bhimashankar [9], Pune [10]; Ratnagiri Dist. : Shirgaum [], Khed []; Sangli Dist.: Chandoli Wildlife Sanctuary [13] ; Satara Dist. : Helwak [14], Ghatmatha [15]; Thane Dist. : Thane [16], Jawhar [17], Dehri, Murbad [18].

2 6 found up to Bombay in north and occurs in Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil adu in south (Agrawal, 1973; Corbet & Hill, 199; Molur et ai., 005). It is diurnal and semi-arboreal and occurs in Tropical Evergreen Forest, Moist Deciduous Forest and plantations like tea, cardamom and coffee (Molur et ai., 005). They feed on paddy grains, male flowers of coconut, mucilage of cacao beans, fruits and other plant parts and insects like termites, black ants, beetles, insect larvae etc. (Bhat and Mathew, 1985). Present paper reports its occurrence in andurbar district of Maharashtra State in north (Map 1) which extends the range of earlier distribution. The article also offers comments on its subspecific status in northern part of Western Ghats. MATERIAL AD METHODS Present study is a part of the thesis submitted by the author to the Univeristy of Pune for the award of Ph.D. degree, 007. It includes morphometric examination of voucher specimens collected from northern part of Western Ghats available in Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata (ZSI, Kolkata), Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune (ZSI,WRC) and ational Institute of Virology, Pune (IV). External, Cranial and Dental measurements of each voucher specimen were taken by a vernier caliper with a dial graduation reading up to 0.1 mm. All measurements were taken in millimeter (mm). Abbreviations used for measurements: Length of Head and Body (HB), Length of tail (TI), Length of Hind-foot (HF), Length of Ear (E), Occipitonasallength (onl), Condylobasallength (cbl), Greatest zygomatic width (zw), Frontal width (fro), Length of tympanic bulla (bl), asal length (nas), Length of maxillary toothrow (mtr), Length of diastema (dia), Length of palate (pal), Length of the orbit (orb), asal width (nw), Mandibular length (ml). Material Examined: Maharashtra : Mumbai Suburban Dist. : -, Ghatkopar, Sal sette, 4.iv.1914, ColI. S. H. Prater, (ZSI, Kolkata, 14957), ;, Ghatkopar, Sal sette, 7.iv.1914, ColI. S. H. Rec. zool. Surv. India Prater, (ZSI, Kolkata, 14954); andurbar Dist. : 1 1-, Amlibari Tal. Akkalkua, 4.xi.1985, ColI. M. S. Pradhan ZSI,WRC, Mj 46),-, Kondaibari Ghat near Visarwadi, 19.xi.1985, ColI. M.5.Pradhan, ZSI,WRC, Mj 453); Pune Dist. : unsexed, Katkarwadi, Pune, 04.ii.1955, ColI. B. S. Lamba (IV, W183, 189, skin only), 1 unsexed, Katakarwadi, Pune, 08.ii.1955, ColI. B. S. Lamba, (IV, W18, skin only), ;, Vithhalwadi, Pune, 13.vi.1963, ColI. S. Paradkar, (IV, KRPS 4), ;, Vithhalwadi, Pune, 07.i.1966, ColI. S. Paradkar, (IV, KRPS 4), ;,-, Karla village and around, 08.vi.1984, ColI. M. S. Pradhan, (ZSI,WRC, Mj50, 51); 1 1-, Karla, Pune-Bombay Road,.v.1988, ColI. M. S. Pradhan, (ZSI,WRC, Mj5l0); -, Hanuman Temple, Bhimashankar, 30.v.1979, ColI. A. S. Mahabal, (ZSI,WRC, Mj146); Ratnagiri Dist. : ;, Khia (Khed), 4.xii.1914, ColI. S. H. Prater, (ZSI, Kolkata, Table -1: External, cranial and dental measurements (mm) of Funambulus tristriatus tristriatus (Waterhouse) studied from Maharashtra State. SD: Standard Deviation; : Sample size Mean SD HB TI HF E onl cbl nas pal *mtr fro orb dia bl zw nw ml ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± * Upper toothrow includes premolars and molars.

3 Table-: Comparison of external, cranial and dental measurements (mm) of different races under Funambulus tristriatus tristriatus 0 aterhouse) specimens studied by Ellerman (1961) and Agrawal and Chakraborty (1979b) with those ofthe specimens under present study. SD : Standard Deviation; : Sample size. Ellerman, 1961 Agrawal and Present study (Maharashtra spec 'mens only) Chakraborty (1979b) Funambulus Funambulus Funambulus Funambulus t. Funambulus t. tristriatus tristriatus tris tria tus tristriatus tristriatus from Satara from Pune, Mumbai, tristriatus tris tria tus tristriatus and Ratnagiri Dist. Thane, andurbar (numarius) (thomasi) ( of 'numarius') Dist. ( of'thomasi') HB ± ± ± ± ± TI ± ± ± ± ± HF ± ± ± ± ± E ± ± ± ± ani ± ± ± ± ± cbl ± ± >-I r ttj >-I Il> >< o 6 8. n Ul ' p,. (5' w 03.. ro "d Il> S Ul "8.,...,,..., ;:; c:r :;:: E" OJ>, ;:;. ii? OJ> Contd... 0\ c.

4 nas ± ± pal ± ± mtr Mean with SD 7.7 ± ± fro ± ± orb ± ± dia bl apf zw ml ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 0.64 n P. >--I : ro, 0\ fl'.?;j '" " f.. Vl :;:: :or ;::... ;:;.

5 TALMALE : Taxonomic Studies on Jungle Palm Squirrel Funambulus tristriatus ); Satara Dist.: ;,1'f-, Helwak, 09.xii.1914, ColI. S. H. Prater, (ZSI, Kolkata, (skull only), 14956); Thane Dist. : 1'f-, Dehari, Murbad, 17.iii.1984, ColI. M. S. Pradhan, (ZSI,WRC, M/391). Material examined other than study area : Goa: ; I 1 Km.. of Poinguinim, Canacona, 4.xii.1968, ColI. V. C. Agrawal, (ZSI, Kolkata, 18743); Kerala : 1 'f- I Valley, Travancore, South India, 30.viii.1915, ColI. S.. Pillay, (ZSI, Kolkata, 1496); Tamil adu : ; I Sengartheri, Kalkkad Mundanthurai Reserve Forest, 19.vii.1997, ColI. D. Mudappa, (ZSI,WRC, M/840, Donated). RESUL T AD DISCUSSIO Wroughton (1916) described Funambulus tristriatus numarius from Helwak, Satara Dist. as a local race which is smaller in size than F. tristriatus. Later Wroughton and Davidson (1919) described Funambulus thomasi from Khandala, Pune Dist. However, both the taxa were synonymised in F. t. tristriatus by Ellerman (1961) due to overlapping of characters within these races. Agrawal and Chakraborty (1979a) also supported Ellerman's view. Later, Moore and Tate (1965) maintained numarius (including thomasi ) as a distinct subspecies of F. tristriatus. Corbet and Hill (199) and Thorington and Hoffman in Wilson and Reeder (005) also followed the same view. Pradhan and Talmale (009) retained it tentatively and also recommended detailed taxonomic studies of numarius for its validity. However, Alfred et al. (00), Srinivasulu et al. (004) accepted views of Ellerman (1961) and synonymised both numarius and thomasi under the nominate subspecies F. t. tristritus. Specimens collected from localities of thomasi, numarius and nominate subspecies of F. tristriatus were compared and studied in the present work. It will be seen from the comparative account that there is a considerable amount of overlapping in the morphological and osteological measurements (Table-1 & (marked bold) and also in colour forms of these subspecies. Moore and Tate (1965) recognized numarius but commented that " Shortridge obtained 35 specimens in Dharwar and Kanara which are clearly intermediates between [numarius] and tristriatus... ". Therefore, it is strongly opined to accept the views of Ellerman (1961) and keep numarius and thomasi inf. t. tristriatus. The specimen studied from Tamil adu (ZSI,WRC, M/840) having larger size with HB : 190mm, onl :44.1 mm, pi : 3.6 mm and mtr : 9.5 mm, matches with the measurements of F. tristriatus wroughtoni Ryley given by Ellerman (1961), which has been synonymised under F. tristriatus tristriatus by Corbet and Hill (199) and Thorington and Hoffman in Wilson and Reeder (005). As per collection and literature record the species has been reported from different localities from Maharashtra State in the Western Ghats (Map 1). Collection record from andurbar District, Maharashtra (Map 1) indicates extension of range of distribution of this species beyond Mumbai and the northern Western Ghats. As per IUC CAMP, 005 this species has been categorized under ear Threatened category (Molur et ai, 005), recent IUC status shows Least Concern (Molur and ameer, 008) on the basis of its wide distribution, tolerance of a degree of habitat modification, presumed large population. ACKOWLEDGEMETS I am grateful to the Directors, Dr. J. R. B. Alfred (Retd.) and Dr. Ramakrishna (Retd.), Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, for permitting to work on this project and to Dr. Anil S. Mahabal, Scientist-F (Retd.), Officer-in-Charge, ZSI,WRC, Pune, for providing laboratory, library and other facilities to enable to complete this work. He is also thankful to Dr. J. K. De, Scientist D, Officer-in-Charge, Mammal and Osteology Section, ZSI, Kolkata for the help to study the specimens. Thanks are due to Dr. A. C. Mishra, Director, ational Institute of Virology, Pune for permission to examine the museum specimens. He is indebted to Dr. M. S. Pradhan Scientist-E (Retd) ZSLWRC, Pune for guidance and constant encouragement.

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